The Ram Who Learned to Bend: A Story About Strength and Humility
Updated: Oct 13
Episode 1 of The Stories Symbols Tell is here. The Ram Who Learned to Bend is an illustrated story from Teach Between the Lines TV, inspired by Dwennimmen, the Akan Adinkra symbol of strength and humility. It runs about eight minutes, with captions, so it fits easily into a morning meeting, a read-aloud block or a quiet evening at home.
The story
Kobi is a ram with magnificent horns and a very big voice. Every morning he climbs the tallest rock on the mountain and announces that he is the strongest of the strong, and the mountains echo it right back.
Then a great stone slips from the mountainside and blocks the Wind's Crossing, the narrow path every animal uses to reach the eastern valley. Kobi charges it once, twice, three times. One pebble falls off. When a storm rises and a young gazelle is trapped on a narrow ledge, Kobi rushes to help and finds that the horns he is so proud of are exactly what is keeping him from reaching her.
With a few quiet words from Tano, a patient little tortoise, Kobi has to decide what strength really means.
The symbol behind the story
Dwennimmen (jwin-nee-men) means "ram's horns." It is one of the Adinkra symbols of the Akan peoples of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, and it stands for strength paired with humility. The episode closes with the symbol and one idea for children to carry with them: sometimes the greatest strength is knowing when to bend.
Questions to talk about after watching
Why did Kobi believe his horns were all of his strength?
What did Tano understand that Kobi didn't, at first?
How did lowering his head help Kobi do something mighty?
The next morning, Kobi listened instead of charging. What did the animals discover by working together?
Can knowing when to bend be its own kind of strength?
For teachers
The Ram Who Learned to Bend SEL + ELA Lesson Plan turns this episode into three ready-to-teach sessions for grades 2–4. It includes timed video pause points, Common Core-aligned reading, writing and speaking work, 11 printer-friendly student pages, differentiation notes, a writing rubric, a family take-home page and an answer key. It's a 24-page printable PDF for $4.99.
Next in the series: Episode 2, The Two Crocodiles Who Shared a River, a story about working together.
Now streaming: Episode 3, The Bird Who Went Back for Tomorrow, a story about Sankofa and the wisdom we carry forward.
More stories from The Stories Symbols Tell are on the way. Subscribe to Teach Between the Lines TV on YouTube so you don't miss the next one.
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